[URGENT] AVAST! AUTOSANDBOX & DROPBOX BUG

[Hermite15]

Now don't get me started with SugarSync

Why not? Any complain about it? Any problem that I should be aware of?

not really... as long as you don't use their iPhone app. Okay to be clear: yes they offer 5GB of free space vs only 2 for DB, yes they have a nice Windows interface while DB has basically no client interface at all, yes they allow the syncing of any folder etc... oh and yes their new browser interface is nice... but their network, if I refer to my experience and to a few articles that confirm that, is a disaster: it's very slow, like 3 times slower than dropbox (download). Also, I mentioned their iPhone app: lol it looks really cool, full of features etc... that the DB app doesn't have, but: it just doesn't work. Stuff doesn't sync properly at all, either not at all or at such a speed that you wanna give up very quickly, which is what I've done. And I tried several times... getting error messages, dropped syncing etc...

 Now on the other hand, you may have a good experience of SugarSync if you sync between two desktops... I haven't tried yet but one thing is sure: their download speed is awful. It maxes at 200 KB/s while DB maxes at 600 KB/s. Yeah 600 isn't that fast either, but that's still 3 times faster than SugarSync. Also, I heard SugarSync offered a restricted bandwidth for the free version


edit: just wanted to add, let alone the recent (an really bad) incidents with DropBox, what makes it popular is its simplicity, and its reliability. DropBox network is always "ON" and rather fast.
 

[Lisandro]

For me, SugarSync works very good on my Blackberry and I can open files that are in my computer.
No network problems at all also.
Strange, very different experiences.

For computer sync (not mobile), I use the champion Mozy

[achitots]

Hi David, really appreciate your help and pro-active replies! xx

You're welcome, hopefully it will get a positive response.

Edit: I have been rummaging round in the dropbox site and I don't know if this Help item will be of use, http://www.dropbox.com/help/11.

Hi David, sorry for my inactivity. Real busy with school. Thanks for your link. But unfortunately, it was my first backup that actually failed me. So, the files didn't not get sync to Dropbox, else I'd be able to retrieve it suggested by the link.

[achitots]

Update: I have had a response and someone is looking into this topic and the use of dropbox. Hopefully they can get back to us soon.

Thanks for helping me publicize this topic! And btw, just to let you know... The applications involved: Dropbox, Dropbox Folder Sync and Avast!

p/s: Dropbox Folder Sync is a third-party program for Dropbox which I used and caused the problem.

[achitots]

... edit: and yeah, he shouldn't have allowed avast sandbox to take care of the process, must have generated a huge mess.
 

I thought it'd be safer to run it with Sandbox instead. Felt more secured. Still no news on retrieving my files...

[DavidR]

I think the only way to retrieve the files would be through contact with dropbox as I mentioned in their help file stuff, if they don't have a back up and you don't have a back up there is no way avast would be able to recover these files. If I gave that impression, I'm sorry.

All that they can do is try to emulate your problem by using dropbox whilst in the sandbox and see if they experience the same problem with missing files. Now you have mentioned that you also used the Dropbox Folder Sync, I don't know if they would be trying that feature in trying to replicate this.

[Hermite15]

... edit: and yeah, he shouldn't have allowed avast sandbox to take care of the process, must have generated a huge mess.
 

I thought it'd be safer to run it with Sandbox instead. Felt more secured. Still no news on retrieving my files...

consider the nature of junction points, and try to realize how it doesn't make sense to sandbox that ... okay now go to your DropBox account (browser client) and click on the "show deleted files" tab, your files should be there, restore them and download them >>> don't use the sandbox again on sym links

edit: on second thought, if you did what you did, this may also mean that you know (or suspect) that some of the files you're after are malicious... so, think again may be before you download them again

[hectic-mmv]

... edit: and yeah, he shouldn't have allowed avast sandbox to take care of the process, must have generated a huge mess.
 

I thought it'd be safer to run it with Sandbox instead. Felt more secured. Still no news on retrieving my files...

Hi Achitots,
sorry to hear what troubles caused running Sync Dropbox tool if running in sandbox. DavidR summarized everything perfectly. Dropbox sync tool is a third party program, which is probably not developed by the official dropbox developers. Its binaries(junction.exe) etc contains many marks to be evaluated as a autosandbox candidate.If your case Dropbox and Sync tool ran in 2 different environments, dropbox in normal environment, sync tool in a virtualized environment.  If you run Sync tool run in sandbox, all the sync operations are virtualized and could not be seen by the Dropbox process. Thats why dropbox could not see the changes made by the Sync tool.

I am now checking, why the files in the synchronized directory were deleted. There has to exist other not virtualized process of the sync tool which is doing this cleanup which led to the files deletion. I am investigating it now. I have also contacted virus lab to check, if Sync tool has to be evaluated as the autosandbox candidate.

sorry again for the troubles,
Michal
avast! QA